Fail of the day !

Nope the eggs didn't cook. When do I switch the frying pan on?

I don't have the time to read all the lovely posts, just some so I might be repeating stuff. First of all, experiment, on your own. That's the fastest you will learn, not following some recipe, since your head will switch off. You need to feel ingredients, judge the amounts by eye only, tell how flavors mix together by your own mistakes. I had given up measuring, long ago, and only judge quality by look and most importantly - smell (and taste if you can). Price says nothing. Buy quality ingredients and make your own food, very simple at first, only a few ingredients, steam and spice, or soups are great, encouraging starters. Learn all about spices by using them. Then add a bit of oil and learn to stew, then fry. Then after some time, add meat to your cuisine. Then experiment with sauces, beshamels and thickening, then focus on sides. This is pretty much how I learned to cook, I was vegan for long, long enough to learn to substitute and to put a lot of emphasis on spicing. Cooking is all about chemistry and learning from your taste buds. The best recipes I actually didn't read and use, I ate the food first somewhere, learning how to pick up the processes and ingredients from what I taste, then replicating at home. Give yourself a lot of time, for the experimenting phase, and don't worry about errors, they are only learning steps. Your own mistakes will teach you the most. When you learn to cook from scratch, you won't go back to overcooked, chemically enhanced, colored, oversalted processed crap. Cold cuisine is fab, too, your own toast or bread spreads go so nicely with fresh wholewheat bread here. More I know how to cook,more simple my recipes are, really. I do like to learn from J. Oliver, his books are user friendly, sloppy and real. He makes cooking and eating a real social event.

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"L'homme ne peut pas remplacer son coeur avec sa tete, ni sa tete avec ses mains." J.H. Pestalozzi

“The only difference between a rut and a grave is a matter of depth.” S.P. Cadman

"Imagination is more important than knowledge." A. Einstein

What sort of food do you like eating?

It's no point giving you recipes for stuff that you would never eat.

Can I get fresh bread crumbs here? What would they be called in French? I don't want to make my own, my shredder is not strong enough. Do I get them at baker's or regular groceries? Ta.

I imagine you can get some fresh fresh breadcrumbs from a bakery, perhaps also in the bakery section of the grocery stores (I've not thought to look here tbh, I know in the US you can often find some there though).

I use packaged "Quality and Prix" ones from Coop which can usually be found with / near the spices. They are labeled as "Paniermehl" "Chapelure" and "Pangrattato." If I remember right, they come as plain or with "Italian" seasonings added as well.

Thanks so much, that's one thing I used to chase back home to import, off the list, yay. Packaged will work just fine. I will test them on Mozarella sticks, I bet the Italian seasoning will work well with fried cheese sticks. I miss that from Denny's

I like this one and have now bookmarked it.

Do you know if there is a similar one for cocktails? That would be perfect!

Chapelure is also called 'panure' (can't remember if one or 2 'n').
Adjective 'pané' - as in 'tranche panée" sold at most butchers (breaded pork slice).

There seem to be a few. I did a google search for cocktail ingredient search and this was the first result.

any Italian pasta recipe is easy and quick to do and cheap.

No problem, I have the recipe:
1. Cut/tear up some bread
2. Stick in blender
3. Turn on

The bread needs to dry out too.

It's not just about practice and skill. It's also about motivation. And you can motivate yourself by making things that yourself, your friends or your loved ones like to eat.

Maybe have a think about a dish you've had in a restaurant that you liked. Or a dish that you'd typically order in a restaurant.

Next, do some research on recipes for that dish and pick one that you think sounds good. Have a read through and pick out any techniques you're not sure of and read up about those.

Go shopping and take care over the ingredients. This is a very very important step and depending on the style of cuisine, the quality of ingredients can make a huge difference.

Then, have a go at the recipe. You may need to try it a few times. But sooner or later you will find yourself cooking a dish that tastes better than the restaurant version you had . . . partly because you're probably using better ingredients and partly because you're taking care.

When I first tried cooking restaurant dishes it was a revelation to me that I could do better at home.

Tortellini casserole

Migros or Coop spinach tortellini
Bottled Tomato sauce, Agnesi, Barilla
Peperoni, chopped
Chorizo
Pizza cheese

boil tortellini,
chop chorizo, add to tortellini
mix in Tomato sauce, and peperoni,
place in casserole dish,
sprinkle with cheese
Place under grill, until cheese melts

Do you write SOPs perchance?

You obviously go to the wrong restaurants!

Tom

I was once told a recipe for Boiled Seagull, which is actually excellent.

Here it is:

Into a large pot of boiling water add the seagull ( skinned naturally ) and boil for about 30 minutes.

Pour away the water and add fresh boiling water and boil again for 30 minutes, adding any herbs and spices you wish to.

Pour away the water, throwaway the seagull and order in a pizza.

.....

It was amusing when I was told it on a fishing trip on the West coast of Norway...

I'm obviously not talking about ALL restaurants. And actually I spent a lot of time searching out the good ones and wrote half of this:

http://londonfood.typepad.com/

I do think you can cook better at home than MOST restaurants though, including up to 1 Michelin star standard. And I know some people who surpass this.

Uh huh... there is this though:


I don't find myself terribly motivated to buy bread to let it dry out so I can whizz it into crumbs.

The only bread that lasts around here long enough to get dry is sandwich bread (read: "toast") and I'd rather not use that for breadcrumbs.

On the other hand... I did make some lovely stuffing / dressing for Thanksgiving with bread purchased intentionally for that purpose. I could see buying special bread to go with a particular dish (maybe walnut bread semi-coarse chopped and dried to coat some lamb or something).

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The Joys of Opticianry

Next time you cook something, just stick a couple of slices of bread in the oven as it cools. When you've turned these into breadcrumbs, you can freeze them for storage.

It does depend what kind of breadcrumbs you want. Coop sell a pretty good, quite fine version (almost like panko) that's good for schnitzels.